OCR Text |
Show 1866.J DR. J. E. GRAY ON T W O N E W CORALS. 25 CALYPTROPHORA. The coral cylindrical, furcately branched ; the branches elongate, subsimple; the axis horny ; the bark thin, smooth, calcareous, with regular equidistant whorls of cells ; cells with a circular mouth having a raised edge, placed close together and forming a raised ring round the coral. Each cell is furnished with two obconic pellucid cells placed one on the other ; the lower cell is pellucid, apparently articulated to the axis of the coral, very narrow near the mouth Fig. 1. Calyptrophora japonica. of the cell and wide at the other end ; the lower surface of the outer aperture is furnished with two elongated horn-like processes. To the centre of this basal cone is articulated or affixed a similar pellucid horn-coloured cone or rather conical vase, which is furnished with a slightly keeled edge at its widest part, and then contracts as if it had a shorter conical lid, with an aperture in the middle of this lid-like contracted part for the emission of the polype. The two cones are as it were articulated to the stem ; and the lower one stands at right angles with regard to it, and the upper at right angles with regard to the lower one, so that the aperture of the upper one is vertical. |